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The Most Dramatic Photos of World War II

Hello everyone,
To kick start the launch of our new website, I'm going to post a list of some of the most dramatic images taken during World War II.

Warning: Some photos are graphic and not recommended for children. A bigger version of each photo can be downloaded by clicking on the photo.

Infantryman with halftrack, a young soldier of the armed forces, holds and sights his Garand rifle like an old timer, Fort Knox, Ky. He likes the piece for its fine firing qualities and its rugged, dependable mechanism.

Painting the American insignia on airplane wings is a job that Mrs. Irma Lee McElroy, a former office worker, does with precision and patriotic zeal. Mrs. McElroy is a civil service employee at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. Her husband is a flight instructor.

Two French boys watch from a hilltop as convoys of Allied vehicles pass through the badly damaged city en route to the battle front, circa summer 1944. St. Lo was the scene of major fighting the latter stages of the Normandy campaign.

Hungry french civilians take what they can from a dead cow slaughtered by the Allied troops during Normandy Invasion.

Crash landing of F6F on flight deck of USS ENTERPRISE while enroute to attack Makin Island. Lt. Walter Chewning, catapult officer, clambering up the side of the plane to assist pilot, Ens. Byron Johnson, from the flaming cockpit. November 1943.

This dead German soldier was one of the "last stand" defenders of German-held Cherbourg. Capt. Earl Topley, who led one of the first outfits into the fallen city, blamed him for killing three of his boys. France, June 27, 1944.

These Russian, Polish, and Dutch slave laborers interned at the Buchenwald concentration camp averaged 160 pounds each prior to entering camp 11 months ago. Their average weight is now 70 pounds. Germany, April 16, 1945.

This Polish Jew was shot in cold blood by the retreating Germans as the 3rd U.S. Army advanced into the Ohrdruf area, Germany. April 12, 1945.

This victim of Nazi inhumanity still rests in the position in which he died, attempting to rise and escape his horrible death. He was one of 150 prisoners savagely burned to death by Nazi SS troops.

A truck load of bodies of prisoners of the Nazis, in the Buchenwald concentration camp at Weimar, Germany. The bodies were about to be disposed of by burning when the camp was captured by troops of the 3rd U.S. Army. April 14, 1945.

Bones of anti-Nazi German women still are in the crematoriums in the German concentration camp at Weimar, Germany, taken by the 3rd U.S. Army. Prisoners of all nationalities were tortured and killed. April 14, 1945

This terrified baby was almost the only human being left alive in Shanghai's South Station after brutal Japanese bombing. China, August 28, 1937.

Casualties of a mass panic; during Japanese air raid, 4,000 people were trampled or suffocated to death trying to return to shelters. Chungking, China, June 5, 1941.

This girl pays the penalty for having had personal relations with the Germans. Here, in the Montelimar area, France, French civilians shave her head as punishment. August 20, 1944.

These two Chinese youngsters are fascinated by the sight of an American soldier shaving in the open. Yunnan, China. June 1944.

The salute was the little Filipino lad's own idea, when a Coast Guard Combat Photographer encountered him somewhere on liberated Leyte Island. Ca. 1945.

A member of a Marine patrol on Saipan found this family of Japs hiding in a hillside cave. The mother, four children and a dog, took shelter from the fierce fighting in that area. June 21, 1944.

This Nazi "Superman" appears to be in his "teens" and his expression is not exactly that of the conquering hero as an American soldier looks at the lad's injury while awaiting the arrival of a medic. September 6, 1944.

German Gen. Anton Dostler is tied to a stake before his execution by a firing squad in the Aversa stockade. The General was convicted and sentenced to death by an American military tribunal. Aversa, Italy. December 1, 1945.

The Battle of the Marshall Islands. Namur. February 2, 1944.

This boy's dead body, aflame, bears ghastly witness of the horror of the damage done by V-2 on main intersection in Antwerp on main supply line to Holland. Belgium, ca. November 27, 1944.

Sprawled bodies on beach of Tarawa, testifying to ferocity of the struggle for this stretch of sand. November 1943.

Burgomeister of Leipzig a suicide in his office together with wife and daughter as 69th Infantry Division and 9th Armored Division closed on city. Germany, April 20, 1945.

Photo taken at the instant bullets from a French firing squad hit a Frenchman who collaborated with the Germans. This execution took place in Rennes, France. November 21, 1944.

Standing in the grassy sod bordering row upon row of white crosses in an American cemetery, two dungaree-clad Coast Guardsmen pay silent homage to the memory of a fellow Coast Guardsman who lost his life in action in the Ryukyu Islands. Ca. 1945.

Jubilant American soldier hugs motherly English woman and victory smiles light the faces of happy service men and civilians at Piccadilly Circus, London, celebrating Germany's unconditional surrender. England, May 7, 1945.

New York City celebrating the surrender of Japan. They threw anything and kissed anybody in Times Square. August 14, 1945.

Conference of the Big Three at Yalta makes final plans for the defeat of Germany. Here the "Big Three" sit on the patio together, Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Premier Josef Stalin. February 1945.

General George S. Patton acknowledging the cheers of the welcoming crowds in Los Angeles, CA, during his visit on June 9, 1945.

Faithful friend mourns American hero. Along with the many millions to mourn the passing of American hero, General George S. Patton, Jr., is his dog "Willie," the late general's pet bull terrier. Bad Nauheim, Germany. January 1946.

Following evacuation orders, this store was closed. The owner, a University of California graduate of Japanese descent, placed the "I AM AN AMERICAN" sign on the store front the day after Pearl Harbor. Oakland, CA, April 1942.

Dressed in uniform marking service in the first World War, this veteran enters Santa Anita Park assembly center for persons of Japanese ancestry evacuated from the West Coast. Arcadia, CA. April 5, 1942.

A youngster, clutching his soldier father, gazes upward while the latter lifts his wife from the ground to wish her a "Merry Christmas." The serviceman is one of those fortunate enough to be able to get home for the holidays. December 1944.

Japanese attack on the USS ENTERPRISE, afternoon of 24 Aug 1942. Third Japanese bomb hit on the flight deck of the ENTERPRISE. The photographer lost his life while taking picture.

The tragedy of this Sudeten woman, unable to conceal her misery as she dutifully salutes the triumphant Hitler, is the tragedy of the silent millions who have been "won over" to Hitlerism by the "everlasting use" of ruthless force. Ca. 1938.

A Frenchman weeps as German soldiers march into the French capital, Paris, on June 14, 1940, after the Allied armies have been driven back across France.

Four machine gunners showoff their haircuts.

apanese prisoners of war are bathed, clipped, "deloused," and issued GI clothing as soon as they are taken aboard the USS NEW JERSEY. Prisoner bathing. December 1944.

British Troops Unloading at Normandy

British Trooper W. Williamson does his good deed for the day by rescuing a puppy dog from the ruins of a shelled German house on the outskirts of Geilenkirchen.

This Canadian crew of a Sherman tank rests before the battle in the south of Vaucelles.

These two Canadian soldiers raise a flag Nazi which they captured.

Overview of the mass roll call of SA, SS, and NSKK troops. Nuremberg, November 9, 1935.

A Nazi soldier, heavily armed, carries ammunition boxes forward with companion in territory taken by their counter-offensive in this scene from captured German film. Belgium, December 1944.

Adolf Hitler, accompanied by other German officials, grimly inspects bomb damage in a German city in 1944, in this German film captured by the U.S. Army Signal Corps on the western front.

With torn picture of his feuhrer beside his clenched fist, a dead general of the Volkssturm lies on the floor of city hall, Leipzig, Germany. He committed suicide rather than face U.S. Army troops who captured the city on April 19, 1945.

Infantryman with halftrack, a young soldier of the armed forces, holds and sights his Garand rifle like an old timer, Fort Knox, Ky

If that's how "old timers" in the US army shoot rifles then all I can say is thank f*** for the US Navy. He won't hit anything like that, and frankly the recoil if he fired like that would probably knock him on his arse anyway. He's posing, nothing else.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to differentiate between the incompetent and the merely unfortunate - Curtis E LeMay

very impressive list of photos.
However IMO this is ... a bit single-side or biased.
Firstly coz here is absolutly absent the photos taken from the Eastern front- the most bloody part of the European compain.

i had a textbook once, it portrayed a very good picture of us soldier ontop of some ruins in munich in '45, in the background theres a chruch which he's looking upon which is relatively undamaged. I dont know the picture's name but i also recognized an m-1 carbine over his shoulder. Anybody know of it??

also i think it may have been good if at the time there were some photos circulating of Japanese children being treated nicely by Gi's (being given candy or some such), might have done some good

very impressive list of photos.
However IMO this is ... a bit single-side or biased.
Firstly coz here is absolutly absent the photos taken from the Eastern front- the most bloody part of the European compain.

I agree with you Chevan, but I don't know where to get those photos. If you do, let me know.

I agree with you Chevan, but I don't know where to get those photos. If you do, let me know.

Well sure i could get you a lot of links fo instance one of my favoritehttp://victory.rusarchives.ru/index.php?p=3
the collection of Russian state arhive.
I/m not sure about copyrights, but you found out somewhere those photos above and all ok, right
However i do offer you the better way.
Just ask us to prepeare the list of simular impressive photos form a Eastern front.
I mean the photos of most great events of Eastern front.
Sure this is subjective ( less or more) therefore i think we need to keep this project opened for other members.
For instance the Undeground resisitence in European states should be presented here also.
So the our Polish ,Ukrainian and Croatians friend could help us to find a nteresting photos
But from my side i could find and collect the most interesting list of photos from the Eastern front.( about 20-30 photos)
If you agree just say.

If you can get us permission to post some of the pictures on our site, then I'll do it!

OK i will try to get the permission to post it on our site- meanwhile you could get the excellent photos from other amateur site http://www.wf.weltkrieg.ru/black/vf41/index8.php
I think the owner of site will not against to use his collection (of course with the corresponding link at his site www.wf.weltkrieg.ru).
P.S. and i/m not Cheven

Excellent snapshots, my dear Mr. Admin, although I am afraid that I do have some bad news for you: at least 8 black & white snapshots already presented here by you actually were previously printed (and consequently legally protected!) in a truly magnificent book "World War II - 50th Anniversary Commemorative Edition" (With forewords by Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, Oberburgermeister Manfred Rommel and John S. D. Eisenhower). - Colour Library Books Ltd, 1989. I am not an expert in this case, but I am strongly suggesting a professional legal assistance in this specific case.

On the other hand, I think that the following picture still is unprotected. It was printed in a Hungarian book called "Az Emberiség krónikája" – Officina Nova, Budapest 1988 ISBN: 963-783-560-1, p. 939:

June 1940 - French citizens are forced to flee burning town of Metz

Professional legal support is, however, recommended in this case too...